House Of The Dragon Season 3: Fabien Frankel Recalls Meeting Game of Thrones Stars and Teases Shifts Ahead
With just a few months to go, house of the dragon season 3 has become a focal point for cast anecdotes and early audience recalibration. Fabien Frankel, who plays Ser Criston Cole, used a recent appearance at Budapest Comic Con to reflect on the production’s physical demands, an unexpected first meeting with a Game of Thrones alum and a suggestion that viewers may re-evaluate beloved and reviled characters as the story enters its next stages.
Why this matters right now
The timing of Frankel’s comments matters because the show’s promotion has already advanced to visual teases: a first trailer has been released and actors are beginning to set expectations about character arcs and tone. Frankel linked two threads that are central to current conversation: the visceral, material reality of playing a knight—costume and presence—and the narrative arc that could shift audience sympathies in the final seasons. His remarks bring the personal and the plot into the same frame as anticipation for house of the dragon season 3 grows.
House Of The Dragon Season 3: What Fabien Frankel Said
At Budapest Comic Con, Fabien Frankel discussed his run on the show and singled out a «wholesome» first encounter with Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, the body‑builder who portrayed Ser Gregor Clegane, a. k. a. The Mountain, in the earlier series. Frankel described photos of the meeting circulating online as marking their first time meeting in person. He framed the moment with a mixture of humor and humility, joking about the contrast in physical presence: when standing beside Björnsson, Frankel quipped that he felt he was at a disadvantage and that Björnsson was like “an airplane” while he was “a tiny little helicopter. “
Frankel also addressed the role of costume in shaping perception. He noted that his armor enlarges his silhouette, but that his natural height is a “normal height”—5’10″—which places him nearly a full foot shorter than Björnsson. Those remarks tied the actor’s off‑screen reality to how a character is read on screen, and offered a tangible illustration of how production choices mediate audience impressions as house of the dragon season 3 approaches.
Expert perspective and broader implications
Fabien Frankel, actor who plays Ser Criston Cole on the series, explicitly suggested that viewers may begin to feel differently about favorite or hated characters in the final two seasons. That hint reframes promotional chatter: rather than promising only spectacle, the cast is flagging a potential reassessment of moral lines and loyalties. Grounded details—armor that alters a performer’s proportions, the contrast of meeting an iconic physical presence from the earlier series—become shorthand for how performance and production can steer interpretation.
The encounter with Björnsson also performs a connective function between the two series. For fans tracking continuity of tone and scale from the original series into its spinoff, the visual and anecdotal crossover underscores an inherited theatrical vocabulary: physicality, costume and persona. Frankel’s onstage jokes about stature and his candid note about costume provide an unexpected lens on how behind‑the‑scenes realities map onto narrative expectations for house of the dragon season 3.
Frankel’s comments also point to a promotional strategy that leans on human detail. Rather than offering plot turns, the cast is revealing how characters are embodied and how those embodiments might cause viewers to “recalibrate” perceptions as the drama escalates toward its denouement. For a series moving into high‑stakes conflict, the invitation to reconsider allegiances is itself a narrative cue.
As audiences digest early footage and cast commentary, two threads remain clear from Frankel’s remarks: the material craft of costume and physical casting shapes how characters land, and the creative team anticipates that reactions to those characters will shift in the final two seasons. Will those shifts change who viewers root for or revile when house of the dragon season 3 arrives? That is the question now hanging over the coming episodes.
